Trump-Sharaa meet is a milestone in Syria’s reintegration with the world

The leader of a fast-changing Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa shook hands with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, who later described him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”

The handshake, orchestrated by the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, captured al-Sharaa’s dizzying journey from hardened jihadi to the leader of a war-battered country that is gradually shedding its pariah status as it cements ties with America’s top allies in the region.

Trump said he would lift crippling sanctions that had been imposed on the government of President Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December, expressing hope that al-Sharaa, who led the insurgency, can take the country in a new direction.

The news sparked celebrations across Syria, whose economy has been ravaged by 14 years of civil war and international isolation.

But al-Sharaa still faces daunting challenges to building the kind of peaceful and tolerant Syria he has promised.

Before toppling Assad, al-Sharaa was known by the jihadi nickname he adopted, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

His ties to Al-Qaida stretch back to 2003, when he joined the insurgency after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

He helped al-Qaida form an even more extreme offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq that attacked both U.S. forces and the country's Shiite majority, often deploying car and truck bombs.

He was detained by U.S. forces and held for over five years without being charged or sentenced.

The group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadid, sent al-Sharaa to his native Syria in 2011 after the country’s popular uprising led to a brutal crackdown and eventually a full-blown civil war.

In 2013, he defied al-Baghdadi’s calls to dissolve the front to create the large Islamic State of Syria and Syria, or ISIS, and soon fought against them.

He gradually rebranded as the Nusra Front consolidated power in northern Syria.

In his first interview in 2014 on Qatari network Al-Jazeera, he kept his face covered and was clear that his aim was for Syria to be ruled under Islamic law and that it had no room for minorities.

He said he couldn't trust Gulf and other Arab leaders who he said sold themselves to Washington to stay in power.

Three years later he appeared in military garb, renaming his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — meaning Organization for Liberating Syria — as he now controlled a large enclave northwestern Syria.

Then the unthinkable happened: al-Sharaa in 2021 had his first interview with an American journalist from PBS.

Wearing a blazer, with his short hair gelled back and wearing a shirt and trousers, the now more soft-spoken HTS leader said that his group posed no threat to the West and that sanctions imposed against it were unjust.

After toppling Assad, al-Sharaa, now as interim ruler, promised for a new democratic Syria inclusive of all religious and ethnic groups, but did relinquish his Islamist ideology.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HOOK Desk and is published from a syndicated feed AP.)